Mary, Queen of Scots

Mary, Queen of Scots, also Mary Stuart (1542-1587), Stuart queen of Scotland, daughter of James V, King of Scotland, by his second wife, Mary of Guise.

Born in Linlithgow in December 1542, Mary became queen before she was a week old. Brought up in France, in 1558 she was married to the dauphin, who succeeded to the French throne as Francis II in 1559 but died the next year. Mary returned to Scotland in 1561. Although Roman Catholic, at first she accepted the Protestant-led government that she found in place. Her chief minister was her half-brother James Stuart, whom she soon afterwards made Earl of Moray. Her position was crucially important: for the Catholic powers of Europe, and for opponents of Elizabeth I, she was the rightful queen of England, because, like Elizabeth, she was descended from Henry VII.

The English wanted to limit Mary’s influence, and in 1564 Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was proposed as a suitable husband. Mary refused, however, and a year later married her cousin, the Catholic Scottish nobleman Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. Darnley also had a claim to the English throne, and the marriage aroused Protestant feelings and was the signal for an insurrection led by Moray, who hoped to be joined by the whole Protestant party. This hope was disappointed, however, and the queen, taking the field in person, at once quelled the revolt. Her triumph was scarcely over when misunderstandings began to arise between her and Darnley. She had given him the title of king, but he now demanded that the Crown be secured to him for life and that, if the queen died without children, it should descend to his heirs.

Before Moray’s rebellion, Mary’s secretary and adviser had been David Rizzio, an Italian musician and court favourite, and a Roman Catholic. The king was now persuaded that Rizzio was the obstacle to his designs upon the Crown. Acting on this belief, he entered into a formal compact with Moray; Lord Patrick Ruthven; James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton; and other leaders of the Protestant party. The result of this conspiracy was the murder of Rizzio in 1566. Early in 1567 the house in which Darnley lay sick was blown up by gunpowder, probably at the instigation of James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who, since Moray’s revolt and still more since Rizzio’s murder, had been favoured by the queen. Darnley was discovered strangled close by the scene of the explosion. It was suspected that Mary herself was not wholly ignorant of the plot. Evidence substantiating this theory is reflected in incriminating letters and sonnets, allegedly written by Mary to Bothwell and found later that year in a silver casket. Bothwell was brought to a mock trial and acquitted; soon afterwards he divorced his wife and married Mary in a Protestant ceremony.

This step began a civil war. The Scottish nobles turned against Mary. She was able to lead an army against them, but although it was equal in number to the confederate army of Scottish lords, it was visibly inferior in discipline. On June 15, 1567, Mary’s forces were defeated at Carberry Hill, and she was forced to abandon Bothwell and surrender herself to the confederate lords. On July 24, at Lochleven, she was prevailed upon to sign an act of abdication in favour of her one-year-old son, the future James I of England, who was crowned as James VI of Scotland five days afterwards at Stirling. Escaping from her island prison at Lochleven on May 2, 1568, she was able within a few days to assemble an army of 6,000 men. On May 12 her army was defeated by the regent Moray at Langside, near Glasgow. Four days later, in spite of the entreaties of her best friends, Mary crossed the Solway Firth and sought refuge at the court of Elizabeth I, Queen of England, only to find herself made Elizabeth’s prisoner.

Representatives of Elizabeth, Mary, and Moray met in England in 1568 and 1569 to discuss the future of the Queen of Scots. Mary wanted to be accepted at court by Elizabeth and returned to the Scottish throne but Elizabeth refused. Mary remained in custody in England for 19 years, while Scotland was governed by regents (the first of whom was the Earl of Moray) in the name of James VI. Elizabeth feared that Mary’s imprisonment would encourage Roman Catholics in England to rebel; it was also possible that the Catholic powers of France and Spain would attempt to free her. Of the ensuing intrigues to effect her escape and to place her on the throne of England, the most famous was that of Mary’s page, Anthony Babington, who plotted to assassinate Elizabeth (see Babington Plot). The conspiracy was discovered by the Elizabethan spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham. Mary was brought to trial in October 1586, and was sentenced to death on October 25. Elizabeth, however, refused to sign the death warrant until February 1, 1587. Mary, Queen of Scots, was eventually beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle on February 8, 1587.